Dark Chocolates
by soero'smagicBubble
Summary: There is no one like me. No one to share my pain, no one that has been through the things that i have. That was exactly what seto thought about himself. But when a new girl blows into town, is it possible that they share something in common(setoxOC)
1. surprizes and thoughts?

SMB: hello! Yeah I know that some of my other fanfics have kind of sucked lately, but I really do hope you like this one. I've decided to make it a little more moody and…will I'll just let you read it for your self. Now ON WITH THE DISCALAIMER!

Disclaimer note: SMB doesn't own YGO, she only owns the characters she creates in this story and in all of her other ones. Also, she is kind of sensitive…no flames! Oh and…don't get her angry . 

**Chapter 1:**_ Surprises and thoughts?_

_Standing in the rain, he waited there in silence. Puddles of water falling onto the soft bridge-wood underneath him. He stared at the clouds, in the spot where the moon should have been that night._

_He wore no coat. No hat; nothing to keep him from getting drenched in the rain. But he simply didn't care. His mind was focused on something, but what was beyond him, himself. _

_The lightning streaked across the sky, just as he turned his head and looked over at his side._

_What are you looking for?_

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm clock sounded. Interrupting him from his dream.

He heard footsteps, and then someone opening his bedroom door. "Hey bro, you awake?" chimed a familiar voice. It was Mokuba.

"Yeah," the young man answered.

"Well you better hurry, Seto! We're already close to late as it is," Mokuba said looking at his watch. Seto shot out of bed and immediately began getting dressed. How could he have slept in so late?

While he was rushing to get dressed he looked at his alarm clock, which was still going off by the way, and saw that it was now 7:53…he had 20 minutes to get to school. Seto sighed. This hadn't been the first time he had slept in. He was working on a new project for KaibaCorp. And, as you may see, it was completely draining him dry.

As he got down stairs and started out the door with Mokuba close behind, his mind suddenly turned to his dream. It had been years since he had had that dream. But yet…this was the furthest he had ever gotten in the dream too. The last time he dreamt that, was the night that Gozaboru, his stepfather, had gone missing. After that, he never saw of it again…until now.

After dropping Mokuba off, Seto headed off towards Domino High. It was close to the holidays and not long after that Spring Break would be here, so he would have plenty of time to-

_Skeeeert! _The car jumped to a stop. Seto gasped. "Hey! What's the big idea, Mr. Womattah?" He shouted at the driver, who looked pale enough as it was.

"I-I'm sorry, sir. But someone ran out in front of us," he managed to spit out. Seto wrinkled his nose in disgust. What moron would run out in front of a car on a green light? _Idiots! Now I'm going to be late_, Seto thought bitterly.

As the car continued on driving down the street, Seto thought what he saw was his schools girls uniform flash by as they speeded past. A school student possibly? If so, then it was more than likely that they were going to meet in the office. Seto smirked. The perfect amount of time to submit revenge on the fool who had made his late to school. After all, this was Seto's last warning before he got detention. He could no long be late any more.

As Seto pulled up to the school and got out of the limo, he noticed that indeed, the student had been a girl that went to his school. But as he saw her walk up to the double doors he noticed something. In all his time at Domino High, he must have seen almost every girl in the school. (Only cause most of them drooled over him) but unless this girl had dyed her hair and had gone punk, he hadn't seen her before. But then again, there were a lot of girls in the school, and she could be anyone. But other than that one thought, he never paid much attention to it. He simply went along his business and continued on his way to homeroom.

"Alright class, settle down. We have a lot to cover," said the teacher. Seto rolled his eyes. After he had gone to the office, Seto had managed to just barley make it into the room before homeroom was over. So he wasn't exactly late at all. Instead of using up his last warning, he gained one more. Though no one really actually noticed, let alone cared.

But something still troubled Seto. For some reason that girl kept coming back to his mind, why though, it was beyond him. Seto shook it out of his thoughts and went back to working on some papers he was calculating and working on for KaibaCorp.

Suddenly, Seto had been asked to answer a question on the board. No matter what Mr. Yamatou threw at him, he would always get it right in the end. And despise the fact that he had been a couple of minutes late; again, no one really seemed to notice.

Mr. Yamatou was Seto's Calculus teacher, and in Seto's mind, an ignorant fool. Half the time Seto knew more than the teacher did, Seto did more work the damned fool most of the time, and got everything right all the time. So to him, this class was both pointless and a waste of him time.

So due to the class being down right lame, he opened his Laptop and began to work on KaibaCorp. He considered this class as kind of a…second study hall.

By the time it had been 20 minutes into the class, Seto was already working hard and not paying the least bit of attention to the teacher…that was until…

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_ The noise had kind of made Seto jump, though he refused to show it. Seto averted his gaze from the Laptop and looked up to the front of the class. And there, Mr. Yamatou and someone else stood. That someone was the same girl he saw this morning. The idiot that almost made him late again. Seto sneered slightly and glared at the girl.

"Class, it seems we have a new student. Class, this young lady has just moved here all the way from America…meet Miss Porter," Mr. Yamatou said politely. The girl didn't say anything.

As usual, Yugi and the others tried to quietly re-arrange themselves so the girl could sit close to them. But they weren't the only ones. Some of the other girls shifted too. But no matter how much they shifted, there were always only four seats that weren't occupied. The three seats in the back…and the one in-between Seto and Joey. If she sat there, then she would be in front of Yugi and behind Tea. (Poor Tristin sat in the back, diagonal of Joey.) Which, unfortunately for Seto, that was were she sat. Beside him.

Seto shook his head; this was ridiculous. It was like there was no escaping this girl. But there was also and up side to this. At least he could get his revenge.

As the girl got herself comfortable, Seto saw Joey folding a paper note.

As the girl got her things out, a note suddenly appeared on her desk. She blinked and looked at it for a while before picking it up and opening it slowly, yet quietly so the teacher wouldn't hear. This is what it read:

Hey! My name is Joey, and I'm the one sitting beside you by the way, so… me and the others were wondering if you would like to sit with us at lunch? You know, to get to know eachother?

P.S.- write back…but be quick!

The girl blinked at the note. She turned her sapphire eyes towards Joey on her left who was already looking at her and smiling. She cracked a small smile back then wrote:

Sure…but what do you mean by "others?" There are others?

She flipped the note back and watched as Joey read it slowly. She was quite used to passing notes in class, she had done it in her last school and had never once gotten caught, and so she believed that this was going to be the same way.

Not long later she got a note back from Joey saying that by 'others' he meant Yugi, Tea, Tristin, and Ryou, whom he said wasn't in this class right now. Also in the note he wrote:

Oh yeah, by the way…what's your first name? 'Cause, I'm not too sure about you, but I wouldn't wan to be going around school all day gong as 'Miss Porter'…. Miss Porter lol

She rolled her eyes. And returned the note saying:

My name is Stori.

By the time Lunch time came Seto thought his head was going to explode by watching Joey pass notes to Stori. Although, she hardly answered. He was now even closer to beating up the dog more than he was before! He sighed and sat down at his table in the back. Hopefully now he would be able to get some work done, since he couldn't in Calculus or in any of his other classes, which he _had_ to pay attention in.

While he was working he saw something pink flash by. He looked up to see Stori quickly walking past his table and exit the cafeteria. Seto's table was right by the EXIT doors, which led out into a hallway on the other side from the entrance. That was where the Coffee Machine was, the one he usually visited and hardly anyone else.

Thinking of this time as a perfect moment for a little annoying of his own, Seto got up and went out the door as well.

Joey sat down at the table beside Yugi and automatically began to talk. "Hey guys, I believe that _I_ have gotten us a new friend," Joey said triumphantly. Everyone stared at Joey for a minute before Tristin began to laugh.

"Yeah right Joey. By the way she zipped out of here, it just looks like you annoyed her to death with all of your little 'love notes'," Tristin laughed. Tea and Yugi began to laugh as well.

"Hey! Can't you at least appreciate that I did somthin' good for once," Joey said, "Geesh!"

"It's alright Joey, we believe ya," Tea said. "So, did you ever learn her name?"

"Yeah, of coarse," Joey replied, "She said her name was Stori. Kind of funny if you ask me."

"I think it's a nice name," Tea retorted.

"Yeah, I think I'll have to agree with Tea on this one guys. I mean, how many people do you meet that are named 'Stori'?" said Ryou.

"Hands down," Yugi agreed.

"Yeah whatever," Tristin said, taking a large bite of his sandwich. "If you ask me, I think she's just another punk girl that blew into town. Give her a week or two, when she gets used to this place, and then you guys can watch her do cheerleading moves."

"Tristin! Don't be rude," Tea said, and she hit him on the head.

"Ow! Well it's true!" He complained, rubbing his head. "Just think on how many times we've tried to be friends with a new girl and how they've all ended up with another group of friends or have become apart of the prep-squad," Tristin pointed out.

Unfortunately, the group had to agree with him. There had been a lot of times that they had tried to become friends with a new person and it had just gone down hill for them from that point on. They sighed…all except Tea.

"Well I'm still going to invite her to hang out with us. No matter what sort of negative things you have to say Tristin!" Tea retorted, her head held up high in triumph. This lifted everyone's spirits and soon they were all smiling again. That was just like Tea to turn the tables on a negative situation…but every time she did so, she went through a friendship speech, which they all were pretty much sick of by now.

Stori stood in the hallway drinking her coffee in silence. She had prayed that she would make some friends like her on her first day, but the ones she had obviously made now were nothing like her. They were all talkative. But Stori was not one of those people who talked a lot. She was one of those people who mainly kept to themselves, and had few friends, though they still lived a naturally normal life.

Stori looked off to the side. All she wanted right now was some peace…and some time to think. But destiny obviously didn't have that in mind.

Stori's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a bottle or a can falling out of the vending machine. She turned quickly to see a rather tall and slender figure standing some feet away from her and getting some coffee for himself. Stori recognized him as the young man who was in three of her classes. He had neatly combed brown hair and ravishing icy blue eyes. He wore the boy's school uniform: a royal blue blazer with gold buttons that went from chest to waist, along with a pair of royal blue dress pants.

To her, she thought he was kind of cute, although she had never talked to guy himself…only sat beside him in calculus. (In all the other classes they had together, she either sat furthest away from him or she sat a few seats ahead.)

Stori cracked another tiny smile, and then let it fade away as she turned back to her thoughts. She was almost done with her coffee so she didn't have too much time to think things out strait…but as long as she made it last, then she was fine with it.

It wasn't anything special that she absolutely needed to think on, but to her, it was kind of important. She was thinking…on a dream that she had had last night

**Hey I hope you liked it! Please send reviews! And if you want to send in ideas your more than welcome too do so! **


	2. Announcments

By the end of the day, Stori had already met all of Joey's friends. (Mainly: Tristin, Yugi, Tea, and Ryou.)

Stori sighed as she stretched her arms. Yugi and the others had decided to walk her home since they thought she might get lost on hr first day. But as they got down the road a ways, Stori spotted someone up a head. It was Seto.

"Hey, who's that?" she asked, pointing to him. Of coarse she knew he was one of the people in her class, and of coarse she still thought he was kind of cute, but the only problem was: she didn't know his name! (A/N: remember people, Stori is from America. So she doesn't know about all of the big shots in Japan.)

"Oh, him? That's Seto Kaiba, you wouldn't want to mess with him," Yugi said.

"Yeah! We call him 'money-bags'," Joey retorted, smirking Seto's way. Stori blinked.

"'Money-bags'?" she said aloud. She had meant to say it in her head, but as you can see, she didn't.

"Cause he's rich! God knows why he's walking home today. He usually rides home in his limo," Tea said looking entirely bored on the subject.

Stori looked back up Seto's way and blinked. _I guess it's safe to say they obviously don't like him. Guess that means he's not big on them either_, Stori thought to her self. She sighed again.

Once she was home, she waved good-bye to her friends and went up-stairs. She hadn't been given any homework since she was still new to this…and she didn't understand some of the writing as well.

Moving all the way to Japan had really taken it out of her, although she knew the language as if it was her first language. And to add onto that, she had taken Japanese lessons all through middle school. So she was more then confident she knew what she meant whenever she spoke to her friends and teachers in Japanese.

Unfortunately, in her house…the still spoke American, so sometimes she would mess up and accidentally say something in English while she was talking. She even once had completely read something in English in front of her friends in study hall today, even though it was written in Japanese. How or why she had done so was beyond her.

When Seto got home he immediately went up to his room to work. He had too much to do to worry some stupid homework that he knew he could do in less then a minute, depending on what it was. In his mind, there was nothing the teachers could throw at him that would make Seto Kaiba worry.

(The next day)

"Okay class, time to announce your new project," said Seto's science teacher happily. She smiled at the class as she spun around and got out the papers to hand.

Random moans and groans came from the students in the class…all of them, except Seto. He was used to this by now and to tell you the truth, he really didn't care. He could have it done before anyone anyways…so why would he bother.

The woman-teacher danced (not physically) around her desk and started to hand the first paper to the student in front of her. But then she stopped and took it back up saying, "whoops! Silly me! I forgot to tell you all: This is a partner project! And before I hand out your project subjects, _I'll_ pair you up!"

This, however, did get Seto's attention. Last time he did a partner project, in fact every time he did one, he was usually paired up with someone who was too lazy to even get on the internet and look up the subject, so he ended up doing the whole thing and getting an 'A' anyways. Seto rolled his eyes. He had also been paired up with Wheeler of all people last time. He prayed that would happen again.

"Yugi and Joey," said the teacher, Seto sighed slightly.

"Tea and Tikishi…and finally: Seto and Stori," the teacher said happily before putting the paper down to see half the class smiling happily as well, due to them being partnered with the people they wanted too. Seto however…was not as happy.

_I get partnered with the new girl?_ Seto thought giving the girl a glare, though she wasn't really paying any attention to him.

While Stori was busy rummaging her thoughts for random things to keep her occupied, she heard her name being called, "And finally: Seto and Stori." She blinked out of her thoughts. Seto and herself? For what?

Suddenly she remembered her teacher mentioning the word "partner" and "project". Stori's eyes grew wide. That only meant one thing: She and Seto where to be partners. She sighed.

_Another day…another problem,_ she thought.

_But jus think! You get to work with the cutey,_ said the voice in the back of her head. She flushed and blinked in surprise at what she had jus thought.

After her mom and sister had gotten home last night, she had begun to think a little bit harder on how she thought of Seto Kaiba. Once she had thought about, he wasn't really all that handsome as he looked. OR as sweet: she had seen him go off on a poor fool that had tried to pick a fight with him. She laughed quietly. All though she thought it funny to see him squirm she still thought it was mean too.

_**Sigh** I guess either way, I'm going to be working with Kaiba on this. Lucky me,_ she thought bitterly. She now really didn't care for Seto much.

"Oh you are so lucky!" said her friend. Her name was Lana Kenosha, a neighbor that lived in her neighborhood. (A/N: duh! Sorry guys I couldn't think of anything.)

_That's what you think_, Stori thought as she smiled at her friend.

Lana was one of Seto's 'fans' and she had a major crush on him…along with some major priorities that really needed to be sorted out in Stori's mind.

Lana was much like Stori. They both agreed on the same stuff, mostly; they both liked the same kind of music; they both where somewhat punk looking, not to be mistaken with gothic; and they both where both book worms. The only thing they didn't agree on: where guys. She liked all of those hot muscular guys that had a lot of bronze and not a lot of brains. But Stori liked those guys, not the nerdy, computer nerd, heck no. She liked the ones with good looks and good grades. After all, who _would_ want a stupid boyfriend?

_Probably that Tea person_, she thought with a laugh, _HAHA, I bet that stupid cheerleader does nothing but show off her ass for the guys! _

"Stori? Hello? Are you listening to me," asked her friend, while waving her hand in front of Stori's face.

"Huh? Oh, no," she giggled.

"Ha ha, very funny, Stori. Now please listen to my jealousness," Lana said. Stori rolled her eyes. "Now as I was say-," but Lana stopped. This time Stori waved her hand in front of Lana's face. But Lana just pointed down the hall with her mouth agape.

Stori followed her gaze to see what Lana was looking at with awe. When she saw, however, she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Lana was looking at Seto. And yet all he was doing was getting books out of his locker, and yet, Lana thought of it as a day at the spa!

When Seto had finished putting his things away in his locker a string of laughter caught his attention.

He looked around his locker door to see Stori standing there laughing at something she obviously thought was funny. And when Seto looked over to the girl beside he understood why.

_Oh god! It's her_, Seto thought looking at Lana. Lana suddenly snapped out of her little trance and flushed at the sight of him looking back at her. She then grabbed Stori by the hand and dragged her down the hall. Stori stopped laughing then and just followed her friends' footsteps back down the hall.

Seto rolled his eyes. Like he had thought before: it was like there was no escaping this girl. She was in three of his classes, they lived not four blocks away form eachother, and they saw eachother at lunch every single time! Seto sighed deeply.

_This school is going to be the death of me_, he thought. He couldn't even imagine what would happen in that girl was in the same house as him. He'd probably blow something.

Then he remembered science class. He was going to have to be in the same house as her! They had a project to work on.

_Oh! What the f-_, he stopped himself from going that far. Then something inside of him clicked.

If Stori was going to be coming over to the Kaiba Mansion for work then that meant that she was going to have to come right after school! Great, less time for him to work.

_All though,_ said a voice in his head, _this would give you plenty of time to get to know this new girl a little bit better. After all…she's not like most girls_. Seto rolled his eyes.He had to admit, this was true. But he knew he didn't want to.

**Tehe! End! Muhaha…ah that's getting old! Cries why is it that it is no longer funny to leave it on a cliffhanger? Ah well**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these made up characters of hers. Please people no flames, as you know. And if you have any suggestions for the story you are more then welcome to stat them in your reviews or if you want to guess what happens next you may do that as well. I love to hear from the readers! Bye!**

**Ps—thanks to all of you guys that have review in this story and my Nakoi one! You make me so happy! That is why I try to write a different chapter every night for you guys! Once again: thank you! And keep up the good work!**


	3. a challenge?

**Hey guys, sorry I took so long on this chapter, but I was a little preoccupied with the Nakoi, Blue Rose story ; please forgive me. Anyways: THE CHAPTER IS FINALLY UP! So read and review! Hope you like! **

_Dear Diary,_

_Hey, it's me again. I know I haven't exactly written in you in a long time but I've been a little preoccupied with the move any everything. You do remember me telling you how we were moving to Japan don't you? Of course you do. _

_Well, anyways, guess what? I've made some new friends, and I think I've finally met someone like me. Her names Lana, sweet girl…a little blonde sometimes though. (She has some major priorities to work out, shh don't tell her I said that. ) _

_Sigh sometimes…I wish people would know what I've been through. Sometimes…I wish I could just spill the beans and tell every one of my troubles. But, alas, I can't. Those secrets I will take with me to my grave…not a soul will know…not a living soul._

Seto walked down the street, fuming with annoyance. Stori had utterly refused to go to the public library to study on the subject (A/N: btw they had gotten Global Warming…huh…an interesting subject for a science teacher to give don't you think? I think that would be more of a history or S.S. class type of thing…oh well.) And when he had suggested that they just go to his library in his mansion, she just looked away and said that she had to go. It was really starting to piss him off how the girls acted around him. He sighed and turned the corner, coming to the front gates of the Kaiba Estate.

He hadn't known why, but he had been very conferrable with walking home instead of riding home in his limo. It just felt good to him. Having the nice cool, winter breeze blowing across his face. It hadn't started snowing in Domino yet, but by the way the weather was acting, he was sure it would be soon.

Giving one last look to the street corner down the road, he sighed and signaled for the guards to open the gate for him. They did, letting him walk through and then shutting the gate firmly behind him. He had a lot to think about.

The next day was Saturday, the perfect time for Stori to go and explore. Se had only been in Domino for just about 3 days now and she was already familiar with her neighborhood. She was gifted with the ability to learn and memorize things quickly…now if only she could use that ability in school, then it would be even greater.

Feeling a bit lost along the way; she got out her cell and decided to call Yugi. He lived down the street so it wouldn't take her long to meet him at his house, if that was the plan. But first, she needed to make sure it was all right with Yugi before she did anything unexpected.

She heard the line ring, "Hello?" came a voice from the other side, and it was Yugi's voice.

"Hi, Yugi. It's Stori," she said in perfect Japanese.

"Oh, hey Stori. What's up?"

"Nothing, hey I'm a bit lost, can you help me?"

"Huh? Lost?"

"Yeah, I was wanting to explore Domino a bit today, but…I have no clue where I am going. Do you think you or one of the gang could help me out?"

"Uhh, sure I guess…wait let me check with Grandpa and see if I can," she heard him put down the phone and call for his grandpa. After a few minutes or so she heard him pick back up again.

"Sorry, Stori, I can't. I have to help Grandpa with the shop today," he paused and turned his voice to a whisper, " we're doing tournament hosting today, what a joy." Stori giggled at his sarcasm, but let that giggle die quickly.

"Well thanks anyways Yugi, I guess I'll try some of the other members of the gang," then with a quick "see'ya" she hung up. She hadn't let him notice it, but she was indeed quite angry. She _couldn't _call one of the other gang members; they where all busy that weekend, she knew this cause they had told her. Then she got an idea, she hadn't tried Lana yet! And she was in front of her house anyways, so she didn't really need to call.

Not hesitating, she jogged up to Lana's door and knocked. She heard someone rush down stairs and with in minutes the door went flying open to reveal a rather relieved looking Lana.

"Oh thank heavens you're here!" she exclaimed. "Mom, I'm going out!" she yelled up stairs then with a faint 'okay' from her mother she shut the door behind her.

"So, where are we going," Lana said speed walking up her drive way.

"Whoa, before we go anywhere, you have to tell me why you were in such a hurry to get out of the house," Stori said stopping.

Lana sighed and turned and looked at Stori, "Mom is spring cleaning today."

"But its winter," Stori said, a slight tad of confusion was added into her voice.

"Yeah, I know. That and I saw Seto on TV and it said that they where allowing people to actually go and looking around the main hall of KaibaCorp today," Lana blushed and held her hands to cheeks. Stori smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Guess that means we're making a pit stop at KaibaCorp during the tour of the city huh?" she said walking pass Lana.

"Tour?"

"OMG! This place is HUGE!" Stori exclaimed looking around Domino.

"Yeah, you should see how crowded it is in the summer," but Stori was a little preoccupied with a shop window to listen to what Lana was ranting on about. Stori fixed some of her hair back into place before turning back to Lana and the tour.

After a while they finally came to KaibaCorp and when they did Stori stared in awe. _Oh…my…gosh!_ She thought letting her eyes follow the size of the building.

"Told you it was cool," Lana said looking at Stori with a slightly sly look on her face. Stori gave her a 'shut up' look before signaling Lana she could go ahead inside. Lana clapped happily and took Stori by the hand, dragging her in too.

"Oh! This is so exciting! I wonder if we'll see Seto in here," Lana said looking around. Stori just rolled her eyes and gave the place a rather bored and 'whatever' kind of look.

_This isn't exactly how I planned my day_, she thought looking around. Then she spotted something in the room down the hall; or more like someone instead of something. She saw Seto.

She flushed slightly and quickly left the scene. After doing so, she grabbed Lana by the arm and exclaimed, "C'mon! We're going."

"W-what! Why?" Lana said, forcing her self free and stopping at the front doors.

"I-I want you to show me the…the Arcade again! Yeah, I think I got enough money for us to go play now," she said in a slight hurry. Luckily for Stori, Lana was a gullable girl and she fell for her little trick of escaping.

"Okay Stori-san, if you say so. But I get to choose what games we play," Lana said with a sly smile. Stori was too in a hurry to notice it.

When they got there Stori let out a sigh of relief. Was she glad to be out of _there_. _Whew…I'm just glad Lana didn't suspect anything. She _didn't_ suspect anything…right?_ Stori thought turning and looking around for Lana. _Where is that girl anyways?_ Just then she spotted her. Lana was in a crowed of people who where gathered around a Dance Game, where you and a competitor dueled eachother (dance style.) She walked up to her.

"Hey, Stori-san look! You see that guy? He's Johnny Steps! He's suppose to be the greatest dancer here," she said pointing to the black guy dancing on the field. The other guy beside him was doing a crappy job of dancing and basically just stomping on the buttons. It drove Stori insane how these amateurs couldn't even try to dance on the field.

After another few minutes of one dancing well and the other…stomping…the game ended and Johnny won. Lana clapped and smiled happily. _Lana might be punk but she sure is girly…_ Stori thought while staring blankly at her friend.

"Hey you! In the punk suite," Stori snapped out of her blankness and stared up at Johnny. He was pointing at her smiling slyly.

"You feeling lucky today?"

"I donno, why? You trying to challenge me?" she asked glaring at him. He just smirked even more.

"Maybe. How about you try and show Johnny Steps if you can do better than these armatures." Stori smiled slyly. Lana looked at Stori with a bit of shock as she walked up on the stage.

"But Stori-san, you've never danced before," Lana complained. Stori looked down at her friend. Lana was right, she had never danced before…but she had done something very similar to it.

**END! Muhahahaha! Just to make up for me not posting in a while I made this chapter kind of long for ya, I hope you liked it. And I promise that I'll try to update on it every chance I get, in fact, I think I'll update it every time I update on the Nakoi story! How's that for ya? Well anyways, R#R please, no flames. Later guys!**


	4. touch of poison

Stori winked at Lana before turning back to Johnny.

"Well, let's see what you got girly," Johnny said facing the giant screen in front of them. _I'll make you eat those words_, Stori thought as she too faced the screen.

"_Let's get this party started! Players, get your grove on_," said the machine. Johnny smirked. They began.

Johnny started by showing off some of his top moves. First he did a triple step; then a slight hand touch; and finished those with a fancy spin, step, and touch.

He looked over at Stori to see what lame progress she was making. But when he saw her, he let his eyes grow wide. Stori was doing better than he was! She moved like a cheetah and yet smiled gracefully as if it was no jiff. Most of the time she was jumping in the air, turning, and landing on the right spot every time. Johnny was so preoccupied that he had let his score go down.

"Hey, make a move Johnny!" Shouted a kid from the crowd.

"Huh? Right," Johnny quickly went back to his stepping and soon caught up.

In Stori's mind, all she could think about was making Johnny eat his words. But suddenly she felt something go wrong. She quickly opened her eyes just in time to see herself tip in the air. She had tried to do a triple step like Johnny but had jumped instead and ended up tripping.

She desperately reached out to the air in front of her hoping she would grab onto some invisible string…but it was no use. She fell backwards into the crowd behind her. Unfortunately for her, everyone moved out of the way as she fell and she ended up falling right on her back; bouncing up about an inch before falling back down on her back again. She winced at the pain and strained herself to try and sit up. She felt someone's hand reaching out and help her up. She opened her eyes to see Lana there beside her asking if she was okay.

"I'm fine Ana-san," she sat up completely. By the time she was up, with help from Lana, the game had already ended and she had lost. She glared up at Johnny as he spoke, mockingly at her:

"Oh, so sad. It's hard to see such a good dancer fail. I really had hopes for ya kid…guess you just not ready to face Johnny Steps," she crowd around him started to cheer and say complementing things to Johnny. Stori and Lana just glared at random people in the crowd who where snickering at Stori. If looks could kill then all of the people they had looked at would have all just fallen over dead by now. But alas, they didn't. And Stori despised that fact.

With one final glare at everyone, Lana helped Stori make it to the doors of the arcade. Stori had one arm around Lana's neck while Lana had one hand holding on to Stori's arms that was around her neck while the other one was under Stori's other arm.

Lana had wanted to take Stori home like that, but she utterly refused. Lana wasn't trying to embarrass Stori, not that she hadn't already been embarrassed enough that day, and she was just trying to help. But Stori told Lana that it was all right and that she should go and enjoy her time.

"Why don't you go on back to KaibaCorp, Ana-san. I'll be fine. I don't want my injuries be responsible for you having a sour day," Stori said with her back turned to Lana.

But before Lana could say anything, Stori had already started her trek home. "Okay…make it home safely Tori-kun," Lana whispered looking back at her staggering friend one last time before heading in the direction of KaibaCorp.

(A/N: Have you noticed how Stori and Lana have all these cute little nicknames for eachother? I think it's just so cute! Oh and btw, Lana and Stori will sometimes call eachother by different nicknames as Lana just did now with 'Tori-kun' Just letting you guys know. Oh and before I forget, this chapter is a two part chapter so, as you may have seen, the first part was about how Stori gets injured while trying to shut Johnny up, and the second half…I 'm not gonna tell ya what's its about. You'll just have to read for yourself. Now, BACK TO THE STORY!)

For the rest of the weekend, Stori stayed at home, partly to recover and partly to try and get some of the project done…without Seto being there. But alas, she found that she needed his help after all so she put it all aside and went back to being miserable for the rest of Sunday.

"Are you feeling better Tori-kun?" Lana asked Stori as she met her in the lunchroom. It was Monday now, and Stori was indeed feeling much better, but she didn't say it to her friend. Instead she just gave a slight nod and walked away from Lana.

Lana gave her vanishing friend a worried look. Stori hadn't talked hardly at all that morning. Lana sighed before turning right and sitting at the table she and Stori sat at…sometimes.

Stori got a cup of coffee for lunch every day now. It was cheaper on money, and it also kept her awake for the rest day, so she had made it a sort of need for everyday. Sure every now and then she would get a regular lunch, and granted she would sit with Lana every chance she got, but lately she had been spending her lunch time in the hall way by the coffee vending machine.

She grabbed her cup of coffee and sat down on the bench that was obviously now claimed as her 'lunch bench.' She sighed. The _only_ reason why she had been spending her lunch time in the hall way was because she had been having a lot of things on her mind lately. There was homework, which she got a tone of now; her friends; her family; her school project, which she despised; and…

Her thoughts where interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. She snapped out of her little 'thinking trance' and looked up to see who it was. It was Seto. He, too, was getting a cup of coffee for lunch. He had also been doing that lately, but that was cause he was working on his laptop now more often. She guessed there was something going on at KaibaCorp that he was working on. She rolled her eyes away from him and turned back to her half full coffee cup.

"I sure hope you got some work done on the project, Stori. Seeing as to how you had plenty of time to do so over the weekend," she heard a mocking voice say. She cold sound of his voice cut through her thoughts like a knife cut skin. She mentally felt her body temperature go down by at least 10; but she refused to show any signs of emotion on her face as she turned to look at him.

He wasn't looking her way; instead he was looking lazily at the vending machines in front of him. Stori glared.

"Maybe. What about you? Did _you_ get anything done, pretty-boy?" she shot back. He let his fierce eyes shot to the side to meet with her sky blue ones.

"Actually I had a meeting I had to go to. So no, I didn't," Stori could tell right away he was lying. She knew he hadn't really had a meeting. She knew cause she had seen him at KaibaCorp with Mokuba talking to some guards. But she decided to just play along with his game.

"Oh, that's right, you're a CEO. How silly of me to think that e CEO would have _any_ time to look up some info," she said with a fake innocent look on her face. Seto didn't fall for it.

"You're a lousy liar, you know that?" he said coldly. She smirked at him.

"No, no, its true. After all, I'm sure you where _so_ busy with keeping all of those people from going any further than the main hall of Kaiba Corp. After all you seemed to be in such a stressful situation telling all those guards to keep them away from the _elevator_," she let that last word have a sting of attitude in it.

"Let me guess…you went to the open house, huh?" he asked looking her strait in the eyes. He was very good at keeping his cool in front of others. Especially when by 'others' he meant 'fools-who-tried-to-prove-him-wrong.' He let his cold eyes narrow.

"Yep…but I didn't really want to go, Ana-san dragged me into it," Stori said finishing the last of her coffee. She walked passed him and tossed the empty cup in the trashcan before heading towards the cafeteria doors.

"Well since we obviously didn't get anything done on the project…I guess that means we'll have to work together on it," he said with a slight twinge of slyness in his voice. But it was too small for Stori to notice. She stopped at the doors with her back turned to him.

"Yeah…guess it does…" she huffed.

"Alright then. See you at your house then."

**Kind of short, I know, but still good right? Well, since I still feel bad about not updating in 100 years, I'll give you a hint into what happens in the next chapter:**

**Seto finds something of Stori's and learns a dark secret of hers. **

**There you go! Muhahahaha, I will tell you no more. R#R please, and no flames thank you. Ohh, disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO, although she does own these strange characters in her stories. Later guys! **


	5. dark secrets

Stori went home that day in absolute shock! Seto! Coming to her house! Her mother thought Stori had had a heart attack when she got home, although she didn't ask.

Stori slumped down on her bed and let herself fall backwards onto the covers. Sighing, she raised her hands to her face and covered her eyes with the back of them. _Maybe I can ask mom if I can go over to one of the gangs' house…or-or maybe Lanas'. Yeah! That's what I'll do. I'll make him have to go home. Yeah, then he'll have to let me do the project on my own…_she thought to herself.

She let her eyes reopen and look at the clock beside her bed. It read: 5:40. Seto would be coming soon

(_Flash Back_)

"_Yeah…I guess," Stori said with her back turned to him._

"_Alright then. I guess it's settled. I'll meet you at your house around 6:00," she smiled smugly and walked past the shocked Stori. _

_Her house?_

(_End Flash Back_)

She sighed. What was she going to do? He couldn't come to her house. Her family would drive him insane, nonetheless, her sister. She groaned and once again fell backwards onto her bed. There was only one thing she could do till he got there…and that was the one thing she was going to do till he did come.

Seto sat in his limo watching the houses and trees (A/N: trees?) fly by. When he had told Stori that he was going to be coming over to her house, he hadn't really thought about that comment before he had said it. It had just popped out. But, he had said it, and Seto Kaiba was true to his word, so he was on his way to her house now. She didn't live that far away, but it was chilly out side so he had someone drive him (A/N: chicken!)

After about 10 minutes or so he arrived in front of house. It was a two-story house that was painted a light peach color. It seemed pretty fancy on the outside but he was sure that was probably the _only_ thing fancy about it.

He huffed and told the driver to pick him up at exactly 8:30…just enough time for them to get _something_ on the project done.

After the driver turned around and left, Kaiba turned towards the peach house. He quickly walked up to the front door and knocked three times. He heard a woman's voice shout before the door opened. Before him stood a rather short woman with a toddler on her hip. She stared kindly up at him.

"Can I help you?" she asked smiling at him and adjusting the toddler on her hip.

"Yes, is this where Stori Knight lives?" he said in Japanese. The woman stared oddly at him. The blinked. Just then he realized that the woman had spoken to him in English. He quickly re traced his lessons of English and repeated his sentence.

"Oh, yes. Are you a friend from school," the woman said, while gesturing for him to come in from the cold. He guessed she was her sister or something.

"No. I'm her study partner…we're working together in a project for science," she retorted coldly. He saw the woman sneer at the corner of his eyes. It didn't bother him any.

As he looked around the interior of the house, he noticed that everything had been arranged very neatly. A gate separated the living room from the entrance. He guessed she probably had a dog. He soon found he was right. A large, white Akena, a Japanese husky, sat there looking up at him with husky eyes; one blue, and the other brown. His eyes mesmerized Seto.

But the trance that the dog put him into soon ended when he felt someone's eyes upon him. He looked over at his eyes to see a little girl with long, black hair and blue eyes looking up at him. He smiled slyly at him. He gave her a blank, emotionless look.

"You must be one of Stori's friends," she said narrowing her eyes at him.

"No," he said looking away from her. He saw her sneer, just as Stori "sister-mother" had done.

"Well I can see why…I don't why my sister has a crush on you," he heard her say. This got his attention. _So…_he smiled slyly,_ Stori has a crush on me, does she? This should be interesting. _

Just as he finished this thought, the woman who had showed him in had reappeared again.

"She's upstairs in her room," she said. Seto thanked her and went up stairs.

"He's cute," he heard Stori's sister try to whisper to her 'now-know-mother' (A/N: Stori's, like my mom, is shorter than Stori is so she sometimes looks like her, and my, sister.)

He let their voices drown out behind him as he walked down the hall and came to a room with the door slightly cracked open. He guessed this was Stori's room.

He leaned in on the door and looking into her room. He knew it was rude to just intrude into someone's room without knocking first, but if Stori's sister was right, then he was eager to see exactly _what_ Stori was doing. He prayed she wasn't getting dressed or anything along those lines. And when he saw her sitting on her bed writing in something, he sighed with relief.

Then the writing caught his attention. She was writing in a little black book that looked like an old fashioned journal. He smiled evilly and cleared his throat to try and get her attention. She looked up in shock and looked over his way. Once she met eyes with him she quickly put the book away under her pillow and stood up. Seto laughed in his head, but no smile was on his face. He had learned to laugh in his mind while his stepfather was still about. It had become a handy gift for the present time.

"S-err-Kaiba, you're here?" she looked away and blushed. He was very tempted to start bursting out laughing. It was amusing to see this girl squirm. She always blushed a bright red and looked away with a rather funny look on her face.

"Yes. You're mother was kind enough to let me know where your room was. Cute stuffed animal," he said looking at the little stuffed tiger lying on her bed. Stori's eyes shot towards the little thing and sneered at it.

"It's Rika's, my sister," she said slapping it off the bed carelessly. Seto could tell she was telling the truth by how carelessly she had tossed it away. Then the thought of what Rika had said entered his mind.

"Speaking of your sister…she told me some very interesting information," he said entering her room all the way. She looked at him in a confused way at first, then got the hint (so he guessed) and sneered. A small fire of hatred entered her eyes, and Seto watched her as she shoved past him and left him in the room. He guessed that she knew what he had meant by that and was leaving to go get back at her sister.

He watched her until she had completely disappeared behind the corner to go and sit down on her bed. He sat down in the same exact spot she had been sitting in before he had arrived and rested his hand on the edge of her pillow. Suddenly he felt a sharp jot of pain enter the side of his hand. It wasn't too sharp, but it felt like his hand was resting on the corner of a book or something along those lines. Then he remembered seeing Stori put her journal away under her pillow.

He slowly reached under it and pulled the little black book out. If there was one thing Seto was cursed with, it was curiosity. He had always been a 'curious cat' and always had liked to understand and read about things whenever he didn't understand what something was. (A/N: hint all of the god grades **wink**) And that's exactly what he did in this matter. Seto slowly opened the little book and read the first entry. It was written in English so it took him a few tries before he finally got the hang of it an understood it perfectly. (A/N: he learns thing fast.)

_January 14th, 2000 _

_Dear Diary,_

_I have found that this book will be burned once I'm done with it. I will write down all of my secrets and then let them burn in the flames of frostiness! Muhahahaha! This book shall burn!_

He stared blankly at the first entry. It puzzled him how girls and guys at Stori's age back then were always obsessed with fire and…making things burn. But then again, he too had once been completely obsessed with wanting to burn things…like his stepfather for instance, that thought had entered his mind more than once when Gozaboru was still alive. Seto smirked at the thought of his immatureness.

He flipped through some of the other pages, and when he saw a really short entry, he would read it and then move on. A lot of the short ones had been either about burning the book or just one little event that had bothered her that day. Most of them where funny, but some of them Seto couldn't help but feel sorry for reading about. (Not in the pity way…sorry as in sorry he had even bothered.)

As he flipped through the more recent passages, he came to a somewhat long one where the first words had been the thing that had made him want to read more

_No one understands me…_

He opened the book all the way and continued to read the entry.

_I was bitterly reminded of those 7 years of my life that I spent in darkness and loneliness._

_When I got home today I found myself recalling all the countless tears that I cried during that time. I had no friends to turn to. Not even a family to turn to. Mom and Dad knew of my pain they never did anything about it. I couldn't turn to my brother…he was always busy with schoolwork. _

_I had learned at a young age how to fend for myself. And before I knew I was spending my time on the swings at day-care everyday…just talking to myself. _

_Everyone…everyone! Judged me by my outside appearance. Once they heard my name the turned their noses and never gave me a chance. I learn a very important lesson during my days of darkness…that there is no one in the world that you can turn to who will listen to you cry. _

Seto bit his lip as he read on.

_Sometimes…I wish…someone would find this diary, and learn of pain. So I wouldn't have to be lonely any more. I couldn't…I can't turn to mom and dad. They wouldn't understand. I would know…I've tried. _

_I wonder…_

But Seto never got to find out what Stori had 'wondered' due to the sound of someone coming up the stairs in a hurry and running down the hall. He quickly closed the book and put it back into his place; just in time for Stori to enter the room to find him just sitting there looking very bored. But in Seto's mind, all that was buzzing in his head where the words that had so greatly effected him.

In the diary, Stori had put "_those seven years_…" When had seen those words his mind had automatically gone back in time to the seven years of his life that he had suffered a great deal of pain and loss.

_So…Stori endured pain as well?_ He thought. Thought he stared blankly at her, with no emotion written on his face, his eyes bore a great deal of emotion; the emotion of pity had been it.

Stori sat down at her laptop and got up some research that she had looked up for him to see. But he was too deep in thought to really notice.

Was it possible? Was…it really possible…that he wasn't alone?

**End! Tehe! I hope you liked the chapter. I made it long for ya this time…which means the next chapter will be short (don't worry this is the only time I'm going to do this little routine, after this I'll just make random lengthened chapters.) Please no flames, as you know.**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO, but she does own these characters in her stories. Please do not steal them from her, she will make you a character! I warned you! (Just kidding ;)**

_Later!_


	6. Second thoughts

Stori slumped backwards onto her bed, "I don't even want to hear the words: 'project' or 'work' ever again!"

"It's only 7:45…you've been working for an hour," Seto said closing the book about Global Warming that he had in hand. (He had brought it from his library.)

Stori just groaned and rested the back of her hands over her eyes.

"Come to think of it, you've haven't even done that much," Seto said walking over the to laptop and looking over the report.

"That's not true," Stori shot up, "I wrote that whole thing!"

"I could have written it in less than a hour," Seto mumbled as he looked over the work.

"What'd you day?" Stori shouted.

"I said I could have done better!" Seto shouted back. Suddenly there was a knock on Stori's bedroom door.

"Who is it?"

"Mom, Stori you need to stop shouting, your brothers' asleep," came her mother's muffled voice from behind the door. Stori's eyes glazed over and her expression went blank.

"Yes ma'am," she said in English. Seto just blinked. True he had taken English lessons, but he had never actually _completed_ them. There was still some of the language he still had to learn. His version of Stori's sentence was: "(BLANK) ma'am."

Stori sighed. _At this rate we're never going to get anything done,_ she thought as she fumbled backwards into the bed again with yet another groan leaving her mouth.

This time Seto's eyes glazed over as he turned back to the laptop. As he read over the 2-paged report, he found that she had done a lot of work on it. Half of the document had already been done by the time he had arrived at her house…the other half had been done while he was there, but it had taken them a long time cause they had so much they had to look up and a lot of times he had seen her stop to think on how to word something and had even asked him for help once.

_She sure does type fast_, he thought has he remembered hearing how quickly her fingers had stuck the keys and how fast she had finished a sentence. _She must had taken Computer Skills in her last school_, he thought as he looked over at her. She was back in the same possession she had been in before they got into another argument.

_She's not at all like any of the other girls I've worked with_, he thought as he remembered the other two girls that he had worked with in the past projects, and how he had ended up doing all of the work anyway and all they did was either admire him or just pretend to actually being doing the project just to impress him. But Stori wasn't like that at all. When he had come over, after she had returned from her little fuss with her sister of coarse, she had gotten strait to work on her laptop; she didn't even blush when she looked at him, she just looked him strait in the eye and explained or said whatever it was that needed to be said.

_She's defiantly not like other girls_, he thought, correcting himself. Suddenly his mind turned back to Stori's journal entry.

"_**No one understands me…I had no one to turn to…no parents, no friends."**_

He bit his bottom lip and he recalled what she had put.

"_**I learned how to fiend for myself at a young age. Once everyone heard my name they turned their noses and abandon me…**_

He pretended to be reading the work…just incase she looked over his way

"_**Sometimes I wish: someone would find this book, and learn of my pain. I wish there was someone like me."**_

_You got your wish, kid,_ Seto thought. Then his mind moved to the last bit that she had written.

"**_Sometimes I wonder…"_** He had never gotten a chance to find out what she had wondered, only cause she had came back into the room in a hurry and he had to throw the book back into its hiding place.

_She's probably moved it by now_, he thought as he recalled his one trip to the bathroom earlier.

Seto turned back to the work in front of him and tried to concentrate on it this time. He had to stop thinking about this.

"Are you done proof-reading it yet," he heard someone say by his ear. He turned his head to see Stori looking over his shoulder at the screen. He hadn't even heard her get back up off the bed. She looked over at him with a bored look on her face, "Well?"

"Of coarse I am done. Now if you don't mind I'd like it if I could have my personal space back," he retorted and Stori leaned back a ways.

"Alright…gees," she said sitting in her bed. She brought her long legs onto the bed and placed them in an Indian fashion. She had both hand grasping her right ankle and she leaned back, her hands being the only thing to support her up. She groaned slightly and then sighed.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ The sound of Seto's stopwatch going off and made Stori jump. Seto looked at his watch only to see that it was now 8:00, his ride would be there to pick him up in 30 minutes. And it wasn't that long. Not long enough for them to get anything else done; not long enough for him to just walk home (actually there was time for that but it was extremely cold outside.) So…there was just plan nothing else to do.

Seto closed out of the document, after saving the changes to it of coarse, and saved the web-links that they had looked up into Stori's Favorites' List, for web pages. After doing so he moved the mouse over to the start button, ready to shut it down, when something caught his eye. A folder in the far corner had been it. It read: "My Pictures" in English. Seto smirked. There was always something interesting to look at in a pictures file.

This could give him proof if what Rika had said was true or not. Earlier, when he had first arrived in Stori's room, he had seen a digital camera lying on the small dresser beside her bed. And right beside him was the cord, so he knew that she used it save all of the pictures that she took on it and transferred it to the computer. He didn't know why, but he had gotten the sudden urge to check it and see if Stori had taken any snap-shots of him.

_As if_, Seto thought. But that little disagreement soon turned into a debate. He had seen Stori with her camera at school plenty of times before, although he had no clue as to why; so he guessed it could be possible. Now to get the debate: rather he should look at the pictures in her file or not.

He looked over his shoulder to see if Stori was till sitting on her bed doing nothing. But when he looked over there all he saw was an empty bed.

Somehow, Stori had managed to walk out of the room _without_ him noticing one thing. This little trick of hers was starting to get Seto a little worried. If she could do that without him noticing, then that meant that if he tried to look under her pictures and came into the room while he was doing so, she'd probably chew him out for it. Way too risky for Seto's taste.

_No amount of proof is going to tempt me now_, he thought as he went ahead and shut the computer down.

By the time Stori had reappeared in the room, it was time for Seto to leave and he was already gathering his stuff up and heading towards her bedroom door.

"Going home?" she asked looking at him as he walked passed her.

"Does it look like it?" he said sarcastically. He wasn't sure if Stori had gotten that one or not…he didn't bother to see the expression on her face.

All he wanted to do right now was go home and go to bed, regardless to the fact tha he needed to get work done on Kaiba Corp. for that night. He had to get these thoughts of Stori's journal entry out of his head. And the only way he could do that was get some rest…or so he hoped.

**End! I hoped out liked it guys, sorry I took so long. As you may have noticed I'm not getting very many reviews on this story, that and someone sent me an email asking rather if I had copied someone else's story or not (cause apparently someone wrote a story where the first chapter was similar to the first chapter of this one --; just more of a head ace for me,) anyways, I don't know if I have to take this story down or not, so please guys, can you make it last? It would really help to know that this story is not going to go down and be forgotten. Thanks! Later!**


	7. Is any of this for real? Or not?

_**Clash! Boom!** Lightening streaked across the sky, as thunder shattered the silence of the rain. _

_He turned to his side at the sound of someone on his far right. As he looked down the bridge, all he saw was a darkened shadowy form standing there, looking his way_

_What are you looking for?_

Seto shot up in his bed, panting as he did. _That dream again_, he thought as he lifted his hand to his head. He pressed it against his forehead, pushing his chocolate bangs out of the way. _Why do I keep having it? What des it mean?_

When Seto finally came downstairs, dressed and ready for the day, Mokuba was already up and heading out the door.

"Oh, 'bout time you got up bro! C'mon! We're gonna be late," Seto sighed; he hadn't even had anything to eat yet. _Oh well, it's not like it would have lasted me the day anyways_, he thought as he grabbed his school bag and followed Mokuba out the door. Something told him this wasn't going to be too good of a day.

"Stori! Get down here now! You're going to be late, and if I get one complaint from your teachers, you are grounded for a month!" Stori's mom yelled up the stairs.

Seconds later Stori came zipping down the stairs, dressed and ready fro the day ahead. She quickly kissed her mom good-bye and ran out the door.

When she got to the end of the driveway she saw Lana waiting for her, "Lets go!"

As they both jogged down the sidewalk, two blocks away from Domino High, a black car flew past them and quickly turned the corner.

"Cool, **pant** looks like…**huff**…we'll be at school at the same time…Seto-shama will," Lana exclaimed happily between huffs and puffs of breath.

"No time for your little fantasies Ana-san, we still have to get to school before we do anything else," Stori said looking back at her friend. (Stori had been running faster than Lana was.)

When they finally came to the school, they both stopped at the front doors to catch their breath.

_Today is DEFINITELY going to be a bad day_, Stori thought as she stood to her full height and pushed open the doors to Domino High.

When she got inside, however, she stopped. Something was wrong…very wrong. Stori looked at her watch and saw that it was only 7:45, school hadn't even begun yet…so…where were all of the students? Lana looking down the hall in confusion as well.

"What's going on?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the hallway. Stori gave her friend a shocked look. Lana had been going to Domino High way longer than she had, and if Lana didn't know anything about everyone absences, then she didn't know what to think.

"Seto-shama should have been here," Lana suddenly spoke up, tearing Stori's thoughts. Lana took a step forward. Suddenly, without thinking about it, Stori reached out her hand called for Lana, even though she was right in front of her. She saw Lana sink into the distance, and then, without warning, everything around them shattered and Lana began to fall. Stori, whom still seemed to be standing on land, fell to her knees and reached for Lana, who was screaming and reaching forward with all her might.

Then, before Stori knew it, she was the one falling…and Lana was the one reaching out for her. _Huh?_ Somehow, Stori had taken Lana's place in the fall and was now falling away into the darkness below, her friend slowly disappearing before her eyes as she felling deeper and deeper into the abyss.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! _Came a shrieking sound. Stori slowly opened her eyes to see her sealing above her…her bedroom sealing. She shot forward and looked at her clock beside her bed: it was 7:45.

"Holy crap!" Stori sent the covers of her bed flying off of her as she jumped out of bed and grabbed her now clean school uniform. In a slight hurry, Stori ran into the bathroom and stripped.

Practically forcing on her uniform, Stori quickly ran back out of the bathroom and grabbed her book bag; stopping before her mirror to make sure she wasn't going outside and forgetting to put on something. Having that taken care of, Stori zipped down the stairs and ran out the door without saying good-bye to her mom.

When she got to school, she hesitated for a moment before opening the school doors. Eventually she conjured up the courage and opened them, revealing a cluster of students going to their lockers and talking happily with eachother. Stori sighed with relief. Hopefully this wasn't what she feared it was…

**Kind of a short and confusing chapter I know, but I just wanted you to try and tell the difference between a dream and reality. 'Cause most of the times in fanfics people always have the dreams in italics, right? (Kind of like what I did with Seto's dream at the top there) Well in this one I wanted to test you and see what you would do if you read a dream _without_ the italics. Tell me what you think in your reviews! **

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these stories, _ideas!_, and characters that _she_ made up (is saying this to the person that accused her of copying his/her first chapter, kind of!) Please no flames, thank you! Later! **


	8. Are you hiding something?

After about one final week of working on the project, Stori and Seto were finally done. And before they knew it, it was time to present the project. Stori had been the one to read the document to the class while Seto just set the things up for Stori to point out. Of course they had gotten an 'A', like Seto always does on his projects; and of course Seto believed that all of the credit would have gone to him…and partially to Stori cause she had written the report. At the end of class Stori spoke briefly to him about it.

"Nice work on the project," she said, and then she turned and left. Seto stood there, sinking in what she had said. He had gotten compliments like that from teachers and from his little fan group every now and then, but _never_ the way she had said it. Feeling a slight bit proud of himself, Seto pushed the matter out of his mind and he left for the next class. Today just might be a good day.

When the end of the day came trudging along, everyone wiggled and twitched in their seats, eager to be rid of the day. Everyone…but Stori. When the bell rang, Stori sat in her seat for a while before sighing and getting up, grabbing her stuff as she did so.

She was one of the last people to leave the school, a 'deep-in-thought' look on her face as she faced the ground and headed home…sort of.

As Seto was exiting the school he noticed that Stori was walking in the absolutely opposite direction of her house. Not thinking much on it, he shook it out of his thoughts and went on towards Kaiba Corp.; there was a lot he had to get done there today.

Stori sighed as she slowly walked down the street. She didn't _want_ to go, but she knew she had to; no matter how much her school and parents protested. She needed money.

"Hello?" Joey heard someone ask on the other line

"Hey Yug," he said happily into the phone.

"Oh, hey Joey. What did you need?"

"Well, I was wondering if you picked up the book I asked you to get from the library yet? I really need it for something,"

"What so important about that book Joey? You've been asking me for the past week for it, and the projects are already due, so I know it's not about that. So what _is_ it about?"

"Nothing! Just tell me if you picked it up yet?"

"No, I forgot, I had to come help Grandpa,"

"Fine, I'll go pick it up myself then," Joey sighed into the phone.

"Okay, later Joey."

"Bye Yug."

They both hung up. Joey stared blankly at the phone for a while before he finally got his coat and headed out the door towards Domino Public Library.

When Joey finally got there, he sighed in confusion. _Now where do I go?_ He thought as he looked around. He let his eyes glaze over and he randomly walked into an isle of books.

The books where piled high on 7 shelves that looked as though they'd go all the way to the ceiling if you looked straight up from the bottom. But Joey had been so used to the place that it didn't really interest him when it came to trying to see just exactly _how_ far the book shelves went up, so he didn't bother to look up and just started looking for the book.

As he continued to walk down random isles and occasionally stopping to check out books that looked interesting, something stopped his search. As he was looking down some isle towards the back, a ladder came in the way of him and a shelf of books that he had wanted to look at. He let his gaze follow up the ladder and up the slender figure of a local librarian trying to put a few books away on the top shelf. He decided since she was just standing there he could ask her for help.

"Excuse me," he said tapping on the ladder. The young lad twitched and quickly put the rest of the books away that she had in hand before rushing down the ladder. When she was down Joey noticed that she came down not letting him see her face. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Hey, can you help me? You see I've been looking for this book-," he stopped his sentence at the sight of the girl zipping away down the hall.

"Hey! Aren't you suppose to help us?" he called after her but she had already turned the corner. He ran after her.

"Hey! Hey wait," he shouted as he chased her down random isles. Eventually he lost her.

"That was weird," he said turning around and looking at his environment. Just then he noticed that she had led him into the isle that he had never noticed before…one that he had missed.

As he skimmed the shelves, surprisingly, he found the book he had been looking for. She hadn't been running away from him, only leading him to the right bookshelves. But the question was simple: how did she know this had been the book he was looking for?

Before Joey left, he walked towards the check out line to check out the book. While doing so, though, he had to go through a maze of isles and turns. And since a Library is so quiet, you never know what is behind every corner…

"Uff!" Joey had bumped into someone while trying to turn the corner. The person had obviously been trying to deliver books somewhere, cause a book almost landed on his head; luckily he moved out of the way just in time.

"Hey, sorry about that," he said as he tried to clean up the mess for them.

"Ow…dang that hurt," he heard a female voice speak. Just then Joey recognized that voice. _No way…it couldn't be…_it was.

"Stori!" he said looking shocked at the dressed up Stori lying in front of him. She was wearing a Ladies Librarian uniform, with her hair put up into a small bun. (A/N: which is kind of hard I guess, since her hair is about as short as mine and mine is shoulder lengthened.)

"Jo! What are you…" she stuttered as she got to her feet.

"What am I doing here! What are you doing here? And why are you…" just then it hit him.

"No way!" he said, getting a sly look on his face. "You're a librarian?"

"Yeah! It's my part time job; you got a problem with that?" she said, looking away.

Joey smiled.

"So how long have you been working as a librarian, Stori?" Joey asked as he sat down across from her. After Joey had found out he had dragged her along with him and they where now in the local Café that wasn't too far from the Library.

"Not long, I just applied not two days ago. Mom doesn't agree with me working at my age, but…" Stori trailed off. She stared out the window that she sat beside.

_I need that money_, she thought. _Other wise…I can't_-

"Why a Librarian though?" Joey interrupted her thoughts.

"Cause I like books," she said shrugging the question off.

"I see," Joey said taking a sip of his coffee.

"Joey…" Stori looked over at Joey with seriousness.

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Err…sure, what?"

"Don't tell anyone!" And with that, Stori got up and left.

**END! I can't really do my Muhahahaha's today, it wasn't that interesting of an ending if you ask me, but then again, I'm not you so I have no clue on what you think. TTYL! **


	9. cut in the night

_Finally finished_, Seto sighed as he gathered up his papers and closed his laptop. He stood up and sighed again as he walked out the door to find no one left in the Kaiba Corp. building.

Seto glanced around to see the streets deserted; no cars zoomed past and no people walked by looking at the many clothing stores. His eyes flickered to his watch as he groaned to see that it was well past one in the morning. Well, at least he got all of his work done today. He rubbed his sore neck, pain running through it from being bent over papers every day.

Seto wrapped his jacket tightly around him: it was another of those cold winter nights where the frigid air kept all the red shutters on the middle-class apartments near his mansion locked tight.

Not a soul strayed outside, and for this Seto was happy; it allowed him time to think about the deals he made, people he fired and businessmen he hired everyday.

He sighed as he walked past a run down Japanese Sushi shop that he and Mokuba used to go to once a week with… with them. The bright colors of green, red, blue and yellow were now covered with wooden boards and graffiti. _Pathetic that kids could find nothing better to do than act like Americans_, he thought to himself, a sneer on his lips.

Seto quickly moved on, letting those memories fly out of his mind of days gone by. He hurried past some of the newer places: a coffee shop covered in bright yellow and black paint, a dress store with white gowns gleaming in the moonlight and…

His thoughts where interrupted by the sound of something falling in the alleyway behind him. He guessed it was probably just a local cat.

He looked up at the chilled night sky. The cold, icy wind blowing across his face, Seto had the sudden urge to let his hands fly to his ears to try and keep himself warm, but he dare not.

Some ways down the road Seto found himself in a somewhat difficult situation. Actually it wasn't _that_ difficult at all…it was a slight debate of which way he should take. If he where to go right, then that would lead him past a couple of shops and towards home…but it would be a slight while longer; while the other way lead past the baseball field and a gym…and it wouldn't take as long. You can guess which way he took: the way that lead past the baseball field and gym.

Seto walked quickly past the stands in the baseball field, refusing to bury his head into edge of his jacket to keep warm. He _wouldn't _start that again.

Yet even though his eyes were straight ahead he still didn't see them until they smashed head on into each other around the corner.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Seto snarled at him and took a step back.

A soft "Ow!" escaped their lips, and when that person leaned forward to clutch at their hand the hat they were wearing slipped forward to reveal shoulder length hair the color of dark wood. As Seto started to leave the sight, walking around her of coarse, Seto noticed blood-dripping form the now-known girl's hand. She clutched it tightly and stood there in silence. Feeling no need to be there any more Seto went on home. It was too late at night for him to care much for some stupid accident that wasn't his fault.

The girl groaned, clutching her hand as Seto Kaiba hurriedly walked past and silently thanked anyone listening that he didn't make sure she was okay.

She carefully made sure no one was around and slipped the blade that had cut her back into her boyish-looking gym bag. The girl drew her hair back under her hat and sighed. Another groan of pain escaped her lips and she moaned quietly,

"Now what do I do?"

Hello! My cousin kind of wrote this chapter, give her applause! Claps Anyways! She and I will leave it on a cliffhanger for now!

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these characters in her stories, and them too! Later! **


	10. EEK!

Seto got to school a tad bit earlier than he had hoped, regardless to the fact that he wished to sleep and would rather be late than anything else. But then again, it was best to be at school before everyone else got there and only the people who thought as he did about the hoards of people, being there with him.

He sighed and got out his laptop; he guessed it be best he went ahead and got _something_ done for the days' project at Kaiba Corp. After all, if he got a heads start now, then he wouldn't have to be out as late as he was last night. (A/N: Seto usually only stays out till midnight or 11 o'clock, but he had no choice but to work late last night.)

As time flied and more and more people wondered into the school, Seto soon found that he had been working for quite sometime. He had gotten to school at exactly 7 o'clock, and homeroom ended at 8:03, (A/N: that doesn't seem that long to me --; also people, their homeroom begins at 7:56 and ends at 8:03, so he had till homerooms end to get stuff done…kind of…he has Mr. Yamatou first period.) he had only been working for 45 minutes now and the school was already starting to fill.

"Next turn to page 127, where you'll find an example of the problem on the other page," stated Seto's Calculus teacher. Seto rolled his eyes and went on back to what he was doing on his laptop. He hadn't really noticed it, but Stori, whom sat beside him, was trying her best to keep him and everyone else from noticing the white bandages on her hand.

Unfortunately for her, Seto sees all. (A/N:  me exaggerating there.) The moment she tried to hide it under her large jacket, he had gotten the hint. Stori was one of those people who enjoyed the cool air, and her wearing her cotton jacket in a classroom was a sure sign of something being wrong.

_Looks like our little punk friend was up late last night_, he concluded as his mind turned back to the little clash she and him had last night, though he hadn't recognized her at all (thanks to her wearing the hat.) _Question is…doing what?_

Just as he thought this, the bell rang, symbolizing the classes end. Stori was one of the first people to get up and leave the room; he understood why, though he had no clue as to why he even cared about that little fact.

He sighed and shook the thought out of his head, gathered his things, and left for his next class. He didn't have time to worry about Stori being cut.

"Hey, Stori, wait up," Yugi called. Stori turned to face him 

"Oh, hey Yug," she said, fixing her jacket sleeve so it covered her left hand, but Yugi had already seen the bandage.

"How'd you cut your hand?"

"Yeah, how?" came a voice from behind; Stori and Yugi turned to see Joey and Tea walking up behind them.

"I-I was…cooking…that's all," she replied with a nervous smile, but they didn't notice it.

"What happened?" Tea asked worriedly.

"Nothing…just wasn't paying attention," and with that Stori left on to her next class. She had been right, she hadn't been paying attention when the cut happened…but that didn't mean it was her fault.

When lunch came along, Stori went straight over to the other side and exited out the opposite door to get to the coffee vending machine, but stopped as soon as she got out there. Seto was already there getting some. She felt her blood turn to ice in her veins as she tried to take a step forward.

She gulped quietly to herself and tried her best to walk around him, hoping he wouldn't turn around any time soon. ( She's still wearing her jacket, though she's about to burn up, well past boiling point. One reason why she went right to the hall without a word to anyone.)

"What where you doing out late last night, Stori?" came a chilling voice. Stori froze in place and slowly turned to see Seto giving her a slightly amused look.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," she struggled not to panic or show any sign of panic.

"You are the worst liar, Stori. Funny, I suspected you would be a rather good one," Stori knew what he meant by that; she let her eyes glaze over as she pushed past him and started to get her coffee.

Even after a couple of minutes had past and she had already gotten her coffee, Stori stood in silence and Seto just stood there waiting for her to say something, letting his eyes cut deep into her back as he watched her.

Finally she moved and took her jacket off, lying on the bench beside her, revealing the white bandages that now covered the palm of her left hand.

"That's none of your business, Seto Kaiba. So don't bother asking again," she finally spoke to him, but she had spoke to him in a firm way. Seto got the point; there was no reason to irritate the matter any longer…

_Sike…_he thought. _This is too much fun_.

"I believe it is my business, since you where the one who ran into me," he said slyly.

"I did not! You ran into me!" She snapped, turning and glaring at him.

"Okay, so I ran into you, but it's still my business; after all, you wouldn't have to wear the heavy jacket all the time if you hadn't been out so late," he said, the sly look still being on his face.

"Hey! I had no choice! I had practice!" Stori let her hands fly to mouth as soon as she finished this sentence. Seto smirked at her.

Stori turned and left the scene in a hurry…she didn't care that she had left her jacket behind. She couldn't believe she had just said that.

Practice huh? Interesting… 

**End! Haha! I am finally finished! Dang that took a while! Well I hope you liked it guys. R#R please.**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns her stories, ideas, and characters in them. Please no flames. Later!**


	11. Crash

_**Crash!**_

_That was you and me,_

Stori lay in her bed in silence as she stared at her ceiling.

_Starting out innocently._

_Shattered on the ground_

_I hear the sound:_

_**Crash!**_

Stori narrowed her eyes as she continued to let her mind sink deep into thought… Ringing in my ears I still feel the sting of my tears "Help me…" she thought in the back of her head 

_Someone._

_Wake me._

_I can't seem to break free!_

"Help me…help me out of here" 

Stori turned on her side and stared at the picture of her and Lana in front of a building, giving the popular 'peace' sign.

_Go on!_

_Get out of my head!_

_I'm on the wrong side of the parallel universe. _

_Am I alive or just dead?_

_I've been stumbling in the dark,_

_Liven in a **crashed** world._

Suddenly, while in a semi-trance of thought, Stori's mind turned to…_those_ times.

Hush! 

_Don't say one more word._

_At this point the truth seems obscured. _

_Cause who we where, is gone forever…_

"He acts as if he cares…but I know it's not real" 

_**Crash!**_

_Underneath the fears:_

_Everything so twisted and weird…_

"Can you help me?" 

_Someone._

_Save me._

_I can't seem to break free!_

"Will_ you help me?"_

Go on! 

_Get out of my head!_

_I'm on the wrong side of the parallel universe._

_Am I alive or just dead?_

_I've been stumbling in the dark_

_Liven in a **crashed** world_

"Do you even know?" 

_Slow motion._

_Devastation._

_Should have seen it coming but I couldn't do nothin'_

_Emotion._

_Desperation._

_Someone._

_Save me._

_I can't seem to break free!_

"Help me!" Go on! Get out of my head!   
I'm on the wrong side of the parallel universe.   
Am I alive or just dead? I've been stumbling in the dark   
Living in a **crashed **world!   
Go on! Get out of my head!   
I'm on the wrong side of the parallel universe.   
Am I alive or just dead? I've been stumbling in the dark   
Liven in a **crashed **world!   
… …… ……… ………… …………… ………… ……… …… … 

Stori closed her eyes and curled her self into a little ball under her covers.

"_Do you even care?"_

**END! Short chapter I know, but you really must pay attention to know what's happening. **

**Basically in this chapter it's explaining how Stori feels about _"those"_ days.  is referring to what she wrote in her journal.**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these characters, ideas, fraises, the whole nine yards. Please no flames. Later, and g'night!**


	12. strange events that confuse us

"C'mon! We're going to be late," yelled Lana.

"I should be saying the same for you, Ana-san! It's you're fault we're going to be late now!" Stori shouted up at Lana.

"It is not! And I can't help it if I'm a heavy sleeper," she cried as she turned the corner and hurriedly ran for Domino High School.

_Yeah what ever!_ Stori thought as they zipped through the school's front gates.

"Huff…huff…huff" Stori leaned forward and supported her upper body with her knees.

"Made it!" Lana said standing up. Indeed, they had made it. Right as soon as they got in the doors, the bell rang and the doors locked behind them.

"Lucky huh?" Lana said turning to Stori, who was still panting and resting her hands on her knees. Stori stood to her full height and made a soft giggle/panting sound.

"Just barely."

**Knock! Knock! Knock! **Seto's eyes lifted from the book he was reading to the classroom door as the teacher, Mr. Yamatou, walked over to it and opened it fully: revealing a rather embarrassed looking Stori with a note and a nervous smile on her face.

Seto rolled his eyes and turned back to his book. The book was nothing special, and not at all _that _interesting, but he only read it for the mystery. Seto was a big mystery/adventure fan. But his absolute favorite type of genera was mystery, hands down. He loved it when the story got so suspenseful that he himself was on the edge of his seat. It was fun to let that happen sometimes.

While Seto sat in his seat reading his book, Stori settled herself in her seat beside him. She had the worst time trying to get to sleep last night. It had taken her forever and a day to finally let sleep over come her. She was too exhausted to want to do math.

She sighed, _Hopefully, Mr. Yamatou will actually let _us_ do the work at our desk and not up at the board_, Stori thought as she groaned and got out a peace of paper.

She couldn't wait till winter break came along. She was so ready to get out of school. She had so much she had planed to do, and yet the list of ideas that she could do still wasn't filled.

Stori's list of things to do over winter break:

Go sledding with friends.

Give snow boarding a try.

Don't get sick

Go back home and visit friends

Get homework done on the first night and not the last minute --;

Convince mom and family to let her be alone this time and not be followed all over the place --;

And last but certainly not least, 7) PRACTICE! REGUARDLESS OF THE WEATHER!

Stori smirked at this. True, she was very excited about that last one, but a few of them she was kind of positive she wouldn't be able to get them done, like numbers: 3, 4, and 5 for instance.

_Yeah, I'm really sure I wont be able to get _those_ things done, especially 4, that's cost too much money, and mom would never agree_, she thought as she sighed again, turning over the paper in front of her and starting to doodle on it.

Before she knew it she had gotten herself into a slight drawing fit. Instead of doodling she was now drawing herself and her friends out in the snow. It wasn't the best, that was for sure, and the characters didn't look exactly like the actually people, but that was okay, as long as she had something to get her mind off of school and math.

After just completing the final details of Lana, a note suddenly appeared on her desk. Stori blushed with embarrassment and open the note slow, so as not to attract attention.

It read:

You really should try to pay attention instead of drawing pictures.

Just then Stori recognized the neat, cursive handwriting. She turned her head and sneered at Seto, who was acting as though he hadn't done anything

_Why does he care? He's not paying attention either!_ She thought as she got her pen out and also wrote on the note replying:

You're not doing any better yourself Mr. Hot Shot!

She folded it back up and flicked it back to Seto, who just let his hand reach out slowly and grab it, though his eyes where still glued to the book. She turned back to her drawings.

Just then, as she started on Joey, another note dropped on her desk. This time it had taken her by surprise and she was a little shaken when it suddenly landed on her hand.

It said:

Why should I? I already know this stuff, unlike you. That I'm sure of!

Stori let her mouth drop slightly and let her eyebrows furrow together.

She wrote back saying:

Jack ass 

This time she was going to ignore him if he replied back. But just as she flicked it back to him, another one appeared on her desk, this time it came from behind her. She blinked at it and let her eyes glaze over before she picked it up and read:

Kaiba bothering you? 

Stori sweat dropped. Tea sat behind her. She didn't even bother to reply to this one, she just bent over her desk and rested her head on her desk and let a groan leave her lips to symbolize that as her answer.

_Ugh…so…bored!_

When the end of the day finally came, Stori twitched in her seat; she couldn't keep still. She was so excited about the weekend; the weather people had said it was suppose to start snowing over that time. Stori face brightened just at the thought of seeing that soft, cold ball of snow falling from the heavens!

**_RING!_** The bell sounded. Stori jumped out of her seat and flashed out the door and down the hall towards Lana's last class. Once she saw her, Stori took Lana by the hand and dragged her down the hall along with her.

Stori couldn't wait to get out of school and finally be able to relax! After all, what could possible go wrong?

"A WHAT!" Stori exclaimed.

"A vacation," Lana replied, a little embarrassed.

"Why now? I had so much I wanted us to do!" Stori fell backwards onto her bed and groaned.

"Well, you can always spend time with Seto-shama," Lana suggested smiling at her.

"NO! That's _your_ idea of fun…to me it's just a recipe for disaster…why do you keep bringing him up anyway?" Stori said sitting up in her bed and looking at her friend with a curious look.

"No reason-," Stori suddenly put Lana into a headlock.

"Don't you 'no reason' me! I know you better than that Ana-san! All right! What'd you tell him!" Stori exclaimed.

"Nothing! Just that-,"

**_Ding Dong!_** Stori and Lana stopped in place and look at Stori's bedroom door; then at eachother; before finally letting go of one another and zipping out the door and down the hall towards the stairs.

Stori shoved Lana out of the way as she tried to go down first, Stori was playing of course, but she had done it so she had completely let go so Stori could go speeding down the stairs.

There was a loud **_THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD,_** as Stori came rushing down the stairs, basically announcing that she would get the door, but her mom had already beaten her to it by the time she had gotten half way down the stairs.

Suddenly Stori's foot slipped and she went flying backwards onto the stairs, flopping down the rest of the way. Lana couldn't help but stand there at the top of the stairs and laugh. Stori just groaned and rubbed the back of her head

"Damn shoes!"

"I believe that was all your fault," came a chilling voice.

Stori let her eyes grow wide she looked up to meet eyes with Seto Kaiba. What was he doing here?

Stori quickly got up and brushed herself off ( she was still in her school uniform and it had slid up a little ways)

"What are you doing here?" she shot at him as she glared up at his tall form.

"I came here to pick something up," he said turning away, his face still emotionless. Stori sweat dropped and let her eyes glaze over. By this time Lana had already came all the way down stairs and was now snickering behind Stori's back.

Stori turned to Lana and grabbed her by the cuff of her shirt, "Is this you idea of fun!" ( She is trying to make it so Seto doesn't hear her, even though he's right in the kitchen.)

"No! This isn't what I meant, I never told him to come over, I swear," Lana said holding her hands up in defense.

"No, I did," came a familiar voice from behind. They both turned to see Stori's mom standing there.

"MOM! Why?" Stori exclaimed, not really meaning to be that loud.

"Like he said dear, I had him come and pick something up,"

Stori and Lana both stared at her mom with a confused look and blinked.

_Seto Kaiba picking up something for a middle-classed person like Stori's mom?_ Was what was going through their minds.

"What exactly…_was_ it, mom?" Stori said letting go of Lana.

"This," she heard Seto's voice say, she look past her mom to see Seto standing there and holding a couple of floppy disks in his hand. This just made the girls even more confused.

"They're virtual maps of the new simulation project, proceeding at the Kaiba Corp. Headquarters," stated Stori's mom.

"In English mom," Stori hadn't meant the actually language, it was a term used for when someone didn't understand something.

"Blue-prints," Seto stated, pushing past the two girls and heading out the door.

Stori gave her departing mother a shocked look.

"Mom?"

"I work part time for him, the whole reason why we moved here," her mom stated, her back turned to them as she continued on her way towards the laundry room.

_What a strange day this has been…_

**End! Laughs at how she had made everything so funny and random** **Ahh, I needed that laugh! Hope you liked it, if not, oh well… ONTO DISCLAIMER!**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns her stories and characters in them. Please no flames! **

**Preview to next chapter: While Lana is away on Vacation in Nagasaki, Stori is utterly bored and decided it be best if she just go and practice her little sport. And what is her little sport anyways? Try to find out next time! Later!**


	13. practicing secrets part1

Stori gazed lazily out her window. Lana had just left for Nagasaki and hour ago, and she was already bored. _Without Lana being here…then there really isn't any point in trying anything on the list of things to do. The whole point of it was to spend time with my friends…but…_Stori sighed. What _could_ she do for entertainment?

_Well…there's always _that

Seto sat in his office a little dazed at the moment. He had gotten a call late last night about a meeting that he was to attend to at 2:00. It was 11:45 now…he had close to three hours of work he had to do for the company till then

(_Flash Back_)

_**Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!** Seto's black cell phone vibrated violently on the dresser beside his bed. He moaned and picked it up, groaning, "Seto Kaiba."_

"_Hello Mr. Kaiba. Sorry to be calling so late, but it was important that I speak to you immediately," said an English man's voice. _

"_About what," he said sitting up in his bed. _

"_Well Mr. Kaiba, I was hoping that you and I could possibly have a meeting tomorrow around 2…" said the man._

"_A meeting about what? Who is this?" Seto said, more serious now._

"_This is Mr. Kenosha, the CEO of the company you just meet with a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry I couldn't speak to you about it then, I'm afraid I was a bit preoccupied at the moment…" his voice trailed off._

_Seto sighed deeply before answering: "Where is the meeting being held and what is it we're discussing Mr. Kenosha."_

"_That, I will inform you of at the meeting; as for where it is…I would like for you to meet me at the Domino Ice House. I'm sure you know where that is?"_

_Seto paused for a moment to symbolize he had no clue where Mr. Kenosha was going._

"_I'm a fan of the cold," Mr. Kenosha explained._

"_Fine. But I will not attend if you do not at least inform me on what this little conversation will cover," Seto said firmly. He heard Mr. Kenosha sigh._

"_I would really like it if we could talk about your new project your starting Mr. Kaiba, you know, the one about the Virtual Disk III?"_

_Seto cocked an eyebrow. _Why would he want to know about a new project that they had only just begun to work on? _Seto thought. He shook it out of his thoughts and replied, "Fine, but no tricks this time Kenosha!" _

"_Thank you, Mr. Kaiba," Mr. Kenosha said before hanging up. Seto then hung up too. _

_He let his eyes grow misty as his mind turned back to the last time Mr. Kenosha had tried to seclude a meeting and how he had made Seto wait for over an hour before calling him and telling him that he couldn't make it. Seto sighed._

Too…tired_, Seto fell backwards into his pillow and went strait back to sleep…he was too exhausted to even want to think about work. _

(_End Flash Back_)

Now, however, Seto regretted being so tired last night. He hadn't really thought about what Kenosha had said until just then.

_Kenosha's probably trying to get idea's for his company_, Seto thought bitterly as he recalled what Mr. Kenosha had said. Seto sighed again before getting up and heading out of his office door-it was time to go get Mokuba.

_**"**C'mon you can do it!"_

She turned around and started to jot backwards.

"Alright, nice work kid" 

The sound of skirting arising from her feet as she skated boldly on the ground. She wasn't going to give up, no matter how hard or how long she had to practice.

Turning sharply, she tried her best to try and make spin in the air, but ended up on the hard ground beneath her instead. _Damn! Why can't I get it right?_ She thought as she struggled to get up. As soon as she was back on her feet she tried it again, and again, and again, and again. She wasn't going to give up on this! It was her dream! And she was going to work towards it till she was 100 years old. She didn't care how long it took her, just as long as she got into the finals…just as long as she became a champion.

Seto gazed out his tinted windows. He was on his way to the meeting, the one Kenosha had, so called, "planed to be at." He still didn't believe Kenosha would be there…he never was. And Seto was sure that even if Kenosha did attend, then he would have come up with some lame excuse or some tall-tale to explain why he was either late or why he had chosen the place. Seto snarled. He wasn't at all going to tolerate any of that from a grown man older than he, himself.

Not long before Seto had left, he had gotten yet another call from Kenosha, confirming that he had made the owners cancel all practices for that day…so no one could bother them.

_The only thing that confuses me, Kenosha, is why you would even do that in the first place…after all, we're going to be in one of the backrooms…why would you go to such great lengths when no one could have heard us anyways?_ Seto thought as they pulled up to the Domino Ice House.

"What time should I come to pick you up sir?" Asked the chafer.

"I'll call you when its time, I don't know how long Mr. Kenosha plans to keep me here," Seto replied before shutting the door and allowing the limo to go driving off.

He turned and faced the Ice House. Just then Seto's heart almost stopped. It was the gym he had passed that night when he had ran into Stori. It had been so dark outside every time he passed it that he hadn't really noticed that little detail before.

Just then he recalled the direction Stori had been coming from when ever they had ran into one another.

_Well…it ran into her from the right, but she had been turning her body when I ran into her…could it be that she had been trying to make me think that she had been coming form the baseball field?_

Hm. That is a good question! Oh well! There's you're hint guys! If you didn't catch it or jus thought that the hint was pointless, oh well, I guess you'll have to find out in part two of this chapter!

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these characters and stories of hers. Please no flames. Later! Yawns and g'night! **


	14. practicing secrets part2

Seto quickly pushed the thought out of his thoughts. _Why do I even care? I have a meeting to attend to, _Seto thought as he walked towards the doors.

Once inside, Seto paid no attention to the Ice Rink below him, he was a little too preoccupied with meeting Kenosha. Mr. Kenosha hadn't exactly told Seto _which_ room that they would be in, only that they would be meeting in one of the backrooms, so Seto was left with no choice but to go from room, to room, searching for a meeting room that seemed it be the right one.

Eventually he found one.

Seto walked inside and saw the words: "Kaiba Corp. CEO meeting" imprinted on a flap of paper lying across the desk. The sign didn't look done at all.

_Is Kenosha already here?_ He thought as he turned and looked behind him. It certainly didn't look like it. Kenosha hadn't told him it'd be a private meeting.

Just as Seto sat down in his seat, his cell phone vibrated against his side. He reached into his pocket and got it out. The phone caller-ID stated that the caller was unknown…that meant it could be anyone. Seto hit the 'TALK' button and laid the phone against his right ear saying: "Seto Kaiba speaking."

"Mr. Kaiba? Hi! Its Mr. Kenosha…a-are you already at the Ice House?"

Seto's eyes glazed over and he hesitated for a moment before answering: "yes."

"Oh shoot…Mr. Kaiba I am terribly sorry about this, I didn't mean to keep you be waiting for me," sobbed Mr. Kenosha's voice, Seto could tell he was faking it.

"Get to the point Kenosha!"

"Mr. Kaiba I'm afraid I can't make it, my wife surprised me when she told me this morning that we where going to Nagasaki. I hope you'll understand," Mr. Kenosha said. Seto's tried his best not to get too angry at Mr. Kenosha, after all he needed Mr. Kenosha for certain things…though it was hard to believe the old fool was actually useful.

"Whatever, but if this happens again Mr. Kenosha I promise you: you will regret it!" Then Seto hung up.

Seto jolted out of his chair and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. This wasn't his day.

Just as Seto began to storm down the hall he suddenly heard music playing…coming from: the Ice Rink. _I thought he made them cancel all practices,_ Seto thought as he walked around the corner to come in view of the Rink. When he looked down he saw that it was only one person practicing, a girl no doubt, and she was listening to her own music that she had brought.

Her body moved diligently across the Ice as she did tricks and spins for an invisible audience. Seto was too far away to see who it was, but she was wearing a blue skating out fit, one with tight sleeves, and a loosened bottom. (A/N: if any of you guys have seen the movie Ice Princess, then you know the red out fit that she wears? Well it looks exactly like that except it's blue.)

As she started to do trickier moves, Seto soon found himself begin drawn down the stairs to get a better view as she skated with praise. She moved so gracefully that Seto found his eyes glued to her as she moved.

When he finally arrived at the bottom of the audience seats, Seto leaned on the concrete wall that separated the Rink from the audience, so as to get an even better view. As she moved she moved always either far away from him, or with her back turned to him. He wasn't even sure if she even knew if he was there. Seto didn't even see her face.

Well she showed her face at times: but that was whenever she was spinning or turning, and she was moving so fast when she did that, that he only got glances at her.

After a while of practicing and watching, Seto saw the girl stop in the, what seemed to be, the middle of the Rink. A new song had started.

_I like to:_

_Be around you,_

_When you're not tryin' to be a somebody_

She raised her hands slowly above her head as one of her feet moved behind the other.

_And I like to:_

_Hang around you,_

_Talk about whatever we talk about_

The girl then started to spin in place before stopping and starting to skate. She had done this so quickly, and she had done the first few moves so slowly, that when she had done this: it had shocked Seto a slight bit when she had started.

_Don't care where we go,_

_What we do,_

_Who you know_

_What you will if your hair is:_

_Blue or_

_Purple or_

_Pink_

She did a few jumps before spinning in the air and then landing on the ground, skating backwards as soon as she landed.

You don't have to be cool 

_You don't have to be smart_

_Don't need to know everything all the time_

_Its all right if you're a little bit out of air_

_I don't care:_

_Just wanna be your friend_

The girl then turned so she was facing him with one hand in the air while the other was off to the side. She stayed in this position long enough for Seto to see her face, and once he did…his heart stopped.

She opened her eyes to meet his and he could see the color leave the girls face as she stared at him with a look of horror.

It was Stori.

She immediately planted her arms to her side and still stared at him. He stared back at her with a shocked look on his face.

_It was Stori all along? I knew I saw her leaving this building!_ Seto thought. The only thing penetrating their silent stares was the music that was still playing and echoing around the Rink.

Stori then started to skate backwards, her eye fixed on him; her face now pale. After skating backwards for a while, she turned and zipped out of the Rink, rushing into the dressing room.

_What is _he_ doing here? I thought they said that no one was going to be here today…no way…Seto was at the meeting? Then that means…_she quickly shook the thought out of her mind. But it could have been possible that he had watched her out through her whole routine, but if that was true, then why hadn't he said anything, or mocked her as she did so.

_That jerk! How dare he!_ Stori thought as she changed back into her original cloths. _How am I going to explain this?_ She then stopped. How _was_ she going to explain this? If word got out that she was an Ice Skater, then that would give everyone permission to mock her for the rest of her life. And she couldn't just go out and tell him why, that was probably the worst mistake she could ever make. Stori sighed and finished dressing before putting her things away in her bag and exiting out the side door of the building.

Once she got outside, however, she stopped. Seto was already out there. Now she was in deep trouble. It had been bad enough that he had seen her doing the one thing that she had never told anyone about, but he now had something to black mail her with, and that was possibly why he was standing there wait for her.

She then replaced her shocked look with an angry one and started to walk towards him. He stared blankly at her as she stormed away form the building.

"I never would have expected-," she heard him start, but she whipped around and silenced him with a glare.

"Seto Kaiba if you tell anyone about this- I'll- I'll" she struggled to find a threat that she could use against him.

"You'll what?" he asked, glaring right back at her. She just groaned and started to walk away from him, but was soon stopped…by him! Seto had walked out in front of her and had stopped her right in her tracks.

They stared at eachother for while before Seto finally spoke,

"So…this is how you cut your hand…Ice Skating?"

Stori looked away and down at her gym bag. "Kind of…when you bumped into me, my hand slid across the blade…" Stori's sentence trailed off as she looked over at her left hand.

Seto's eyes, too, lowered down to her hand, which was stretched out in place: revealing the scare that extended from one corner of her palm to the other. His face stayed emotionless, while his eyes shown a slight sign of regret.

They stood in silence for some time before Stori closed her hand shut, and lifted her eyes back to Seto's who had stopped looking a little while ago; examining Stori unconsciously.

"You…did-you did…well," he tried to compliment her, but it had come out as: "You did- you didn't do too well." Seto had mumbled it; and Stori had gotten the wrong idea. Her anger soon came rushing back to her.

"Well! I'd sure like to see you do better," she glared at him. He looked a little surprised at first, but then just glared back.

"Hey, is that your way of thank someone for complimenting you?" Seto shot back.

"Well, is that your idea of complimenting someone?" she shot the question right back at him.

"OMG! You are such a _baka_," Seto turned away from her, stress writing on his face. (A/N: baka: Japanese term for moron or idiot.)

"Oh, I'm a baka? I don't even _want_ to start with you!" Stori said, poking him on the chest…a wrong choice.

Seto glared at her, "don't touch me."

"Why not?" she paused to poke him again, "you going to hide behind your security guards?" she taunted.

"I said don't touch me!" Seto backed up. He couldn't believe he was letting a _girl_ shove him around.

"Look! I don't want to hear anything from you, Seto Kaiba," she started to walk towards him, while as he just kept on backing up.

"And if you so much as let one word about this out to anyone, I'll-," he cut her off.

"You'll do what, exactly?" they both stopped for a minute before Stori started to walk towards him again, this time: Seto stayed as she strayed towards him.

"You don't want to know what I'll-," Stori then stopped. While she was walking towards him…Stori had tripped over her own feet. (A/N: she is a major cluts!)

While this had happened though, when she had tripped, she had tripped right into his arms, and through pure human instinct, Seto caught her. But while in the process of doing so, the two had no control over where their arms had landed: Stori's arms had wrapped themselves comfortable around Seto's neck, while as Seto's hands had planted themselves on Stori's waist. A very unpleasant possession for the both of them.

"…Do," Stori finished her sentence as she looked up at Seto. But when she did, and he looked down at her, they found themselves in an even more unpleasant situation: the closeness of their faces has been it.

It had happened so quickly, so fast, that Stori and Seto both hadn't had any time to react.

Soon, however, Stori found her self in an absolute eye lock with him. It was as if heaven, itself, wasn't going to make them let go anytime soon.

_What are you doing?_ Stori thought as she stared unboundedly into Seto's melting eyes. _Just push him off! Was he not just insulting you a moment ago? Crap almighty! Why can't I move?_

_Push her off of you Seto Kaiba. She just blamed you for doing something you hadn't. Dimwit! Move!_ Seto tried his best to make his hands move, but they weren't listening to what his thoughts where telling them.

Without thinking about the consequences, Seto suddenly put more pressure on Stori's hips and sent them backwards, away from his body. But he had been in such a hurry to get her off, that he _really_ hadn't thought about the consequences to that decision.

(A/N: everyone knows what happens when you make one half of the body move one way…the other half is sent forward!)

And so, since that fact had been true, Stori's upper body was sent flying forward: right into Seto…locking lips with him.

**End! Muhahahaha! I hope you liked it!**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these characters and stories of hers. Please no flames. Later!**

**PS—and guys…I kinda of have been noticing a pattern…I guess your not going to really review unless I update 'Nakoi, blue rose' are ya? I've got writers-block on it, sorry. You can send in your own suggestions if you wish. It's really help, and if they're good I'll post your name (screen-name) on the beginning list (gonna have to start doing those now…without them my chapters seem really short) Thanks guys! G'night! **


	15. practicing secrets part3

Recap:

Seto met Stori at the Ice House, not intentionally of coarse, by accident. But Stori got the wrong impression when Seto tried to complement her on her skating and she thought he was insulting her, so she started to fight with him. The wrong choice. Since Stori is such a cluts, when she tried to get up in Seto's face, she ended up, literally, getting into his face and had falling into his arms, their lips only mere inches away from meeting! Could Seto's forceful movements to try and get her off accidentally give him his first kiss?

"**Practicing Secrets…(part 3)"**

…But in the process of this—Stori and Seto's lips intertwined—or so they thought. Really their lips had only just barely brushed against each other's, not really intercepting. Although…to them…it had certainly felt like it.

As Stori let herself be pulled away from Seto she stared at him with slight horror in her eyes, Seto having the same look. Both of their eyes where equally wide…though…only one of them blushed…that one…being Seto Kaiba. Stori didn't really notice the blush, however, while her eyes where on him; her mind was off in horror and relief.

_If Lana had been walking by at that precise moment,_ she thought, _then that would have been the end out our friendship. She would have gotten the wrong idea for sure!_

And as if on que, Stori's thoughts where broken by the sound of something falling off in the distance. And sure enough, when Stori's head turned and looked around Seto's tall form, she saw someone, whom had apparently had gotten the wrong idea by the look of shock on their face…and by how wide their mouth had gotten.

Unfortunately…this person was far worse than Lana having seen it…it was Joey Wheeler.

Just then Stori's eyes got even wider—if that was even possible—and she stared in horror between Seto and Joey.

"Oh…my…GOSH!" Joey exclaimed. This seemed to snap Seto out of his little trance, and he, too, turned to see Joey standing there, mouth open wide, eyes the size of saucers.

But…Seto, surprisingly, figured it out a little to late before Joey started talking again,

"Wait until the gang hears about this!" and with that, he was off down the road, regardless of the scattered library books at his feet.

"Oh damn! JOSEPH WHEELER! I DEMAND THAT YOU STOP RIGHT THERE!" Stori yelled as she began to run after him. Before she rounded the corner though, she stopped and turned to look back at Seto, whom had his back turned to her, to give him one last frustrated look before she speed off down the road for Joey.

Luckily…she hadn't seen the look on Seto's face…or the fact that he was now standing there…his face as red as a beat!

Stori practically ran home. She had lost Joey in traffic and she prayed that he wasn't really going to tell anyone.

_It's—a good thing—huff—Lana's on vacation right now! Other wise—pant—she would have tackled me to the ground and start doing either one of two things: beat me up, or ask me how it was! And I would have to reply: "Now Lana! We didn't even kiss!" And then she would say: "Then why did Joey say you kissed him then?" and then I would reply: "Because he only saw us from behind! I was fighting with Seto and I tripped and fell right into his arms! And when he tried to push me off, he had done so by pushing me away from my waist, our lips almost met!" and then she would wait for a few moments and then ask me: "Well what where you doing at the Ice House parking lot" and then I would have to come up with some lame excuse and say something ridiculous like: "Because I went to go meet him at a meeting!" Although that wouldn't even help me one bit! I'd have to explain my Ice Skating dreams and then, one way or another, our friendship would still end up in the bumps! _

Stori's thoughts came to an end right as soon as she came to her front door step. It was already dark outside and she was late for coming home. She just hoped no one was still awake now. As Stori unlocked the door to her house, she peered around and saw that indeed, no one was still up. _Well of coarse they wouldn't up, dumb ass! It's almost 11 o'clock at night!_ Stori thought as she set her Ice Skating bag down on the floor, quietly of coarse, and started up the stairs to her bedroom. She had spent the rest of the day chasing Joey and trying to get a hold of him and everyone else on their house and cell phones. But she had had no luck. She couldn't get a hold of anyone! Not a soul. Actually she had been kind of happy about this fact, because she had remembered that everyone had been busy and would be busy for the rest of winter break, which lasted two weeks in Japan. (Due to culture relevants.)

After that she only had about a couple of house left in her time that she had told her mom she would be spending practicing, so she went ahead to a local coffee shop and then right over to the Domino Library, just to get some things done over there at her job.

Unfortunately, she had stayed a little too long and had lost track of time, so here she was, sneaking into her own house, trying to not wake up her slumbering mom and her younger siblings.

When Stori got into her room, she immediately ridded her self of her day's clothes and right into a pair of clean, blue pj's. She wouldn't be getting very much sleep that night. No. She needed time to think. She needed time—to sort out the events of that long, unforgettable day.

Though Stori was very unaware, Seto, too, wasn't having too much fun trying to get to sleep either. His thoughts too where going over the day's events. Mostly retracing them right to the same destination: the point where his and Stori's lips had just barely brushed against eachother. Seto, suddenly and socking, blushed at the thought of it.

_She looked…afraid…_Seto recalled the look on Stori's face after he had shoved her away. He, of coarse, had been off in his own little world after the even, blushing all the while. He didn't know if the reason why she had been afraid or shocked was because he had flushed about the accident, or the fact that they had almost lip-locked one another.

Just then, Seto shook the thought out of his thoughts, exclaiming in his mind, _No! We don't think like that Seto Kaiba! No, no, no, no, no! We do not think like that!_

_But…you almost kissed…you know it would have been your _first_ kiss right?_ Said a voice in the back of Seto's mind. He gave in an agreed with the voice. It _would _have been his first kiss. Growing up, in his stepfather's care, Seto had never gotten around to even meeting any girls, or in this matter, kissing one! Besides his male instinct, Seto, when still in his young teen years, had no intention to even go near a girl back then. But now, he went to school with girls' everyday—but he still had no desire to kiss any of then, nonetheless, talk to them. The only girls' he had even spoken to nowadays, where Tea Gardner, though not really, his maids in his mansion, they where all old enough to be his mother, and some of his works at his company, once again—old enough to be his mother.

_Why am I even thinking about this! I am Seto Kaiba! I don't think like this! This is outrageous!_ Thought the burnet. He clinched his teeth together at the thought of this as a look of distaste entered his eyes and facial expression.

Just as he was on the verge of drifting off to sleep, he made one last point to prove himself: _I am not thinking about her…_

Though he hadn't heard it, the voice in the back of his head was exclaiming: _Lair, lair, lair, lair!_

After that little voice had completely disappeared, Seto finally let sleep take him over, as he drifted off, slowly yet quietly, into a deep, dreamful slumber.

**End! Muhahahaha! I win! Now! A preview for the next chapter starts now!**

**Preview: Seto has a strange dream about his and Stori's little run in; And Stori is having a difficult time her self—trying to find Joey still! And could all be lost when she gets a call from the one person she didn't need to see, hear from, or talk too? Read and find out in the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: SMB does not own YGO; she only owns these stories, themes, and ideas of hers. Please no flames. Thanks! Later!**


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